


No Strings On Me

by therealraewest



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Body Horror, Gen, Multiple Timelines, Possession, Possession AU, Sharing a Body, Time Loop, elements of noncon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-07
Updated: 2015-11-07
Packaged: 2018-04-30 09:29:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5158724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/therealraewest/pseuds/therealraewest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Flowey possessed Sans in the Final Corridor?</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Strings On Me

**Author's Note:**

> Major warning for non-consentual body sharing, body horror and elements of torture.

            It was almost time.

            Sans knew. He always knew. It was his job to know.

            Well, okay, it was one of his jobs. He had, like, five of them, after all. But this was the only job he didn't slack off on.

            Which would have been easier to say to himself if he wasn't chugging down a bottle of ketchup at Grillby's only moments before the kid was supposed to be Judged.

            He slammed the bottle down on the counter, wiping the residue off his smile with his sleeve as he slid off of the stool. "go ahead and put that one on my tab, grilby."

            "Heading out so soon, Sansy?" asked a bunny in one of the booths as he passed her.

            "i got a date," he said with a wink. "don't wanna keep them waiting, now, do i?" He shoved his hands in his pockets, a faint tickle in his skull telling him that there was movement in the Final Corridor. Showtime.

            He stepped through the door, the fabric of space bending and pinching around him until he emerged into the gold-bathed hallway.

            The kid had done well for themselves. No EXP, no LOVE. Sans had no idea what the other timelines held, but he figured this was probably a good one as far as they went. He readied himself for the judgment, allowed his eternal smile to widen marginally, and then looked up.

            "Howdy."

            Immediately the skeleton's brow knit in confusion. Instead of a kid, there was a small, golden flower smiling up at him from the middle of the hall. For a moment Sans wondered if it had knocked a tile loose to bloom up from the floor, but no, a closer look showed thin creepers that worked across the floor in all directions, like veins radiating out from the small plant. The roots and vines had apparently worked themselves across the entire floor of the room, then up the pillars and walls, with some even dangling from the ceiling, giving the normally golden room a thin layer of woven green.

            "uh," said Sans.

            The flower chuckled. "Silly, don't you know how to greet a new pal?" It stuck it's tongue out with a wink. "Why don't you shake my hand?"

            Before Sans could contest that flowers don't have hands, he felt something wrap around his wrist, between the end of his sleeve and the cuff of his mitten. The thing yanked him down and he stumbled, only to have another vine grab his other arm and pull before he could regain his balance. Sans sprawled onto the floor, onto the now writhing mass of green and thorns. "h-hey!"

            The entire world went mad. From all directions the vines came, snaking up his sleeves, under his shirt, up his spine. They weaved themselves between his radius and ulna, the careless thorns scratching against bone enough to cause him to hiss and cry out but not enough to take his one precious HP. More vines did the same to his tibia and fibula as the ones on his arms snaked their way up towards his shoulders.

            "what the fu-" his words cut off with a gag as a vine forced itself into his skull from below, coiling inside his jaw as more creepers spread, filling him out from the inside.

            "Just relax, big guy. It'll make this soooo much easier," said the voice of the flower from within his own head. He could feel it there, feel the petals brush almost teasingly against bone as it moved. "Hm, where's the window in this thing? Oh, here we are!" There was pressure and a pop and Sans went blind in his good eye. He felt the flower stretch and lean two leaves against the bottom of his eye socket, like two arms lazily propping him up. "I will admit, I thought the view would be better. God, I had to pick the shortest skeleton..."

            Sans, finally, was beginning to mentally process the situation. At least enough to know that this guy needed to get the hell out of his head. And enough to know that the flower had chosen the least convenient eye to pop out of for himself. He gathered his concentration to take a deep breath and summon magic to burn the sucker out.

            The breath didn't even get halfway in before the vines that had been intertwining in his ribcage forced it back out. Any magic he'd managed to summon was snuffed out like a candle, replaced with a darker, more sinister brand of white magic that was not his own.

            "Nuh, uh! That ain't gonna work, sucker." The creepers that entangled his vertebrae suddenly snapped it rigid, causing Sans to cry out as he was forced at an unnatural angle. The cartilage in his spine popped in a cacophonous sound and Sans was grateful that the noise wasn't the sound of breaking bone. "Ya see, I'm in control here. You even try anything like that again, and I..."

            All the vines contracted as one. One arm pulled back so hard Sans feared it would pop out of its socket, while the other folded in on itself to the point that his bones creaked, threatening to break against one another. His legs were forced out, twisting externally until they nearly faced backwards, and his spine, oh god his spine, how had it not snapped in half at the pure pressure? Yet his skull, pushed outward from inside and inward from outside and up from below and down from above, all the while that horrible flower watched his handiwork from out of Sans' own eye socket, giggling like this was all some sick game... Sans' screams echoed across the empty hall, bouncing back at him from all angles in a taunting chorus.

            "Well, there's only so many ways to lose 1HP, aren't there? But I'm sure I can find a way to make it last." The vines loosened enough so that sans slumped forward, sweat rolling off the top of his skull as he pulled in jagged breaths.

            "if you wanna kill me, kill me," hissed Sans through gritted teeth. "just dust me and spare me the monologue."

            "You sure that's the best option?" mused the flower. "I can do it, you know..." the vines around his ribs seemed to hum, some of them moving inward, closer and closer to Sans' essence, his SOUL... "I could break your soul with a single movement, and do you know what I'd do next?"

            Sans didn't respond, holding his breath lest his own movement draw the creepers too close to his SOUL. A flash of memory came to him, something that was on the wall near his job in Waterfall. It would take a great power to absorb the SOUL of a living monster. While he still doubted it was possible at all, there was no doubt in Sans' mind that if anything could absorb another monster's SOUL, it was this abomination.

            "I'd take your empty shell of a body and fill it with my own DETERMINATION."

            Sans stiffened, this time from his own volition. The flower chuckled in amusement at the automatic reaction.            

            "monsters can't have determination," Sans said, half to convince himself. "it would tear them apart."

            "That's true," he mused. "Luckily for me, I'm not a monster. I'm just lil old Flowey the flower."

            Sans felt his stomach drop. The thing had DETERMINATION. The son of a bitch could SAVE. If he wasn't already, Sans was now officially, royally, fucked.

            "And without a SOUL, you wouldn't be a monster, either, now, would you? You'd just be an empty bag of bones I could pilot around. How many people know you by name, do'ya reckon? I'd say a good majority of the underground, give or take a few frogs. I wonder how many would welcome a hug from ol' Sansy? I'd just have to walk up-"

            Sans felt one leg move against his will. It planted firmly, and then his other stepped forward. They were clumsy, lumbering steps, but he was walking.

            "Give 'em a wave-"

            His right arm pulled out roughly, then affixed itself at a right angle upwards. His wrist moved mechanically side to side.

            "And then call em in for a biiiiig hug~"

            His arms crushed together in front of his abdomen, knocking the wind out of him and causing the bones in his arms to creak. Had anyone been there, in front of him...

            "And best of all, you wouldn't be there to stop me. That'd take at least some of the fun out of it, I'll admit. It's fun to feel you wriggle and struggle in there... but, if you WANT me to kill you, I can just dust your precious friends without you-"

            "no," Sans wheezed.

            "See? I knew you'd come around." Flowey giggled. "We're gonna be beeeest friends, you and me. Just you wait."

            Sans wanted to throw up.

            "Ooh, but before that... We have a little unfinished business to attend to."

            The creepers covering the rest of the hall rushed in towards Sans. Before he could so much as flinch, they entangled him, wrapping up his legs and filling his chest cavity, zipping up his spine to fill his head to bursting. A few thorned vines crept to the outside of his jacket, spiraling around his sleeves and pinning them tight to the bones of his arms, making him look unnaturally thin.

            "Smile, Trashbag, your friend is coming."

            Sans looked up to the end of the hall. The child had just entered, and was taking a moment at the far end to take in the room. Their eyes looked up at the giant stained glass windows, peered at the towering stone pillars, and took in the golden light and the silence of the room until their eyes rested squarely on Sans.

            Immediately their expression was filled with surprise, then confusion, then horror as even from the darkened silhouette of him they could tell that there was something horribly, horribly wrong.

            God, if only the kid was smart enough to turn and run. Instead, they proceeded forward with unsteady steps, watching Sans with every movement.

            "Howdy!" called Flowey once the child was close enough, the voice echoing against the walls and the inside of Sans' skull. "It's me, your best friend."

            "What are you doing?" asked the child. Their voice was surprisingly steady.

            "What, were you expecting me later?" asked Flowey. "Were you expecting me to just wait around for you to do your thing so I can show up and steal the show before you get your happy ending? Is that what I've done before?"

            Whatever Flowey was talking about, it was news to Sans. Not left with much of a choice, he stayed quiet, opting to let the little guy finish while he tried to think of something.

            "Not this time, kid. You look at me different. You look at me with pity in your eyes. And there's only one reason you'd do that. You know about Asriel, don't you?"

            The child hesitated, supplying Flowey with their answer. He laughed, a crazed, hysterical sound that shook Sans to the core.

            "Oh, of course you do! And if you know about him, then you've done this before. Well, not THIS-this, but all the rest of it. You got everyone out. You opened the barrier. You got your happy ending. And yet, it still wasn't good enough for you, was it? You needed more. You had to find out what would happen if you said yes instead of no, what would happen if you got an answer wrong, what would happen if you took the long way instead of the shortcut. So you reset. You reset so fully that I didn't even remember, and you did it all again. All the pain, all the suffering everyone in the underground had to go through, you made them do it all AGAIN. Just because YOU were too selfish to let them be happy."

            The vines contracted again, forcing Sans' arms out wide, painfully wide. He couldn't help a gasp of pain. The child stepped forward, a flash of concern in their eyes.

            "Well, kid, this is what happens when you let your selfishness get in the way of your friend's happy ending." Flowey's voice was dark and grating.

            "Let him go, Flowey," the child said.

            "You'd like that, wouldn't you?" asked Flowey, bending Sans's body forward to look down at them demeaningly.

            "kid, just leave, i'll be fine," Sans managed. Surprised that Flowey wasn't immediately cutting him off, he continued. "i'll, uh, i'll be fine. i promise. just go."

            "Nuh uh! This is a boss fight, now," said Flowey, straightening Sans up. There was a creeping, slithering noise behind him and Sans knew that somehow, Flowey was blocking the path forward behind them. "It's just like I'm always telling you, kid. In this world, it's kill or be killed."

            The child stepped back, uncertain.

            "Aww, don't be scared. C'mon, Friend. Buddy. Pal. Bring it in." Sans was made to lean forward, his arms extended out in an invitation for a hug. _oh no_.

            The child blinked up at Sans, looking into the one eye that was still his.

            "don't do it, kid. it's a trap, he'll-"

            "Don't you want to give your best friend a big hug?"

            The kid stepped forward. Hesitantly, they wrapped their arms around Sans' middle, burying their face in the front of his shirt. No matter how hard Sans willed his arms to stop, they slowly, agonizingly, moved in towards the child, wrapping around them gently, then firmly, then tightly, until Sans felt the snap of their spine and the blink of their SOUL shattering.

 

*SAVE*

 

            "Aren't you persistent?" asked the flower in his eye as the kid approached.

            Something was wrong. Their eyes, their face... It wasn't their first time seeing this. Their expression was too set, not quite surprised enough, filled less with shock or fear and more with a puzzled determination.

            "You wanna try again, huh? Alright. Same choice as last time."

            Sans was cut off from trying to figure out the expression on the kid's face by his arms snapping out wide.

            "You still wanna see if you can reach him in here? Come on in for a hug, friend, and maybe the power of love and friendship will conquer all. Or you'll die. Again. You'll die and you'll die and you'll die. Just like I told you you would."

            The shifting in his bones reached downwards, out through his feet, rooting him to the ground.

            "Or."

            Sans strained his eye, trying to look left to see the body-snatcher's face. All he could manage to see was the edge of golden petals.

            "You could put your friend out of his misery. I'm sure he'd appreciate it over the hell he's going through right now..." As if on cue, vines tightened, forcing a pained wheeze from him. "I mean, he's only got 1 HP. You could easily dust him with the same dummy punch you used on Undyne. Besides, it's not like he's going anywhere."

            The roots. The roots were to keep him still. Dodging was the only thing Sans had, and now, even if he had control of his own legs, he was, quite literally, rooted to the spot.

            The child looked to him for guidance. He didn't know what to say. To die would to let Flowey run around in his corpse with no resistance, but to live... to live at this point would only grant Sans the ability to watch him do it.

            "Wouldn't be quite the same happy ending without your friend Sans, would it? And even if you reloaded your SAVE, I'd know what you did. I'd know you killed him. And I'd be sure to tell him about it, every minute detail of how you reduced him to dust out of anger and frustration, before I killed him myself. And then what? Your ending's ruined, and you're forced to RESET. And maybe, just maybe, I won't be right here waiting for you the next time around, waiting to watch you kill Sans over and over, trying to find the right answer~"

            "kid, just give up on me," said Sans, looking at the devastation on the child's face. "i'm not worth it."

            "Whaddaya say, kid?" Flowey said, his voice raising in volume and pitch. "Kill or be killed?"

            The child rushed forward and Sans braced himself. They were going to kill him. He didn't even blame them, really. He doubted they'd even get any EXP from him, and if they got his body and his soul together then Flowey would have nothing left to pilot. This was the way it had to be.

            The kid clutched him, hot tears running into the front of his shirt.

            "Sans," whispered the child. "I believe in you."

            "Oh! How original!" Flowey bent to peer down at the kid. "I've _never_ seen this tactic before." The voice dripped with sarcasm as thorned vines tightened around Sans' arms, pulling them in towards the human. "I wonder if he'll be able to stop himself this time?"

            "hhhng... kid..." sans hissed, every ounce of his concentration trying to keep the pressure at bay, trying to keep himself from-

            SNAP.

            "Hmm. I guess not. Better luck next time!"

 

*SAVE*

 

            "Back again, huh, kiddo?" giggled Flowey.

            Sans couldn't look. He couldn't bear to.

            "How many times has it been? Have you been keeping count? I mean, I have. Of COURSE I have. But I wonder if your friend here knows. Not that he remembers; he can't quite SAVE like you and I can. But he's reeeeally good at reading people's faces, aren't'cha?"

            Sans felt perspiration roll off of his skull. Creepers shifted over his bones, feeling into him and trying to goad some sort of reaction from him.

            "The big guy's trembling, can you tell? I can. And he hasn't even looked you in the eyes yet. Lemme fix that for ya~"

            His head turned so fast that the cartilage in his neck popped painfully. Before he could tear his eyes away, he was forced to look at the human, who still looked up at him with a mix of pity and determination. God, why hadn't they quit yet?

            "Whaddaya think, Trashbag? How many times has your little friend died already? Once? Twice? What about five times, that's one for each finger! Convenient, huh?" Flowey giggled. Sans tried not to react, tried not to give the awful flower anything to go off of, but Flowey wasn't having it. He shook him violently, rattling the skeleton and making him lose his grip on the tiny piece of his own consciousness that he'd been holding desperately on to for a precious moment. "Helloooo? This isn't an optional question here. Just how good are ya, Sansy? If you guess right you get a prize~"

            Sans closed the only eye he could see out of anymore. It was better than seeing that face. "ten."

            "Ding ding ding! We've got a winner!" Flowey yanked Sans' hands from his pockets to clap them together. "The big one-oh, huh? We should celebrate!"

            Sans had the feeling he wasn't going to like Flowey's idea of a celebration.

            "You know, despite this big lug's laziness and cute, cuddly exterior, you can actually get him to fight you," said Flowey, having Sans motion to himself. "Granted, you'd need to kill everyone. That's how I did it, at least. Not that he remembers any of it, I actually had to RESET to get him off my back. That's why you never fight fair, kids."

            So Flowey had fought him before. Sans didn't doubt it. Had he known what was awaiting him when he'd first seen the damned yellow flower waiting, it would have been dead before it could've gotten out its first word.

            "Anyway, I figure you've never quite gotten that dark, have you? If you had, no way you'd do a true RESET and _still_ refuse to kill anyone. So. Wanna have a little taste of what you're missing out on?"

            The creepers writhed and hot, white magic surged through Sans. He gritted his teeth, a pained noise escaping him as he felt the magic wriggle and writhe within him, searching out his own magical essence.

            "w-what're you-?" Sans managed, trying to fight against this deeper violation of his being.

            "Don't mind me! Just working out the controls. Hmmmm, I wonder what happens when I do this!"         

            At the last word, Sans's arm was forced upwards and he felt his magic snap out with it. The human's gravity inverted and they were sent hurtling towards the ceiling. Sans cried out, trying to pull back his own magic to soften the blow. The reversed gravity weakened and the human was able to float gently onto the ceiling.

            "Sans, that's _cheating_ ," chided Flowey. "Do you know what happens to cheaters?"

            There was a snap as his left pinky finger was wrenched backwards, the bones shattering beneath vine. The skeleton let out a sharp cry of pain, and in doing so lost his concentration on his own magic. His enforced gravity shift dissipated around the child and they began to freefall, screaming, from the top of the room.

            "no!" he shouted, trying to force his arm back up to soften the blow, but vines constricted, instead forcing his arm down to magnify it.

            The child hit the floor with a sickening _THUMP_ and laid there a moment, still.

            "get up, kid, get up..." hissed Sans, watching for any sign of life from the human.

            "Yeah, get up, kiddo. I'm not done with you, yet!"

            There was nothing but stillness for a few moments, and for a heartbeat Sans thought that they may have, finally, given up. But then, movement. Breath. The child pushed themselves up off the floor with shaky arms.

            "you got it, kid, there you go..." Sans said, relieved despite himself.

            The relief vanished suddenly as he felt the bones lining up beneath the floor, preparing to rise.

            "jump!" he shouted, just barely managing the warning before the floor erupted with bones.

            The warning wasn't wasted. The child propelled themselves off of the floor just in time to avoid being impaled with the attack.

            " _Cheater!"_ cried Flowey, snapping another one of Sans' fingers. He grunted, trying to keep in the whimper of pain as he tried to focus on what Flowey was doing next.

            "left! ngah!" Sans whimpered at the crack of another finger. "r-right! dow-oww!" the advice cut off with another cry of pain as his thumb was forcibly snapped in half.

            "That's one hand down, Trashbag. You wanna lose the other one?" hissed Flowey "Wouldn't that just be poetic, ten deaths and ten broken fingers?" Flowey hissed, all joviality out of his voice.

            "i've never been one for poetry," said Sans, panting from exertion. "actually, I prefer _ghost writing_."

            "What?"

            "get it? because I'm a skeleton?" he asked, allowing his smile to twitch upwards of his own will.

            Despite almost getting wrecked by bones a moment ago, the child let out a snort.

            "see, the kid gets it," Sans said with the first semblance of a chuckle since Flowey had inhabited his body.

            Any humor was cut short as Sans contorted, another magical attack being forced out of him towards the child.

            "duck!" he cried, a moment too late. His own screams from having five fingers break simultaneously were almost enough to drown out the sound of the human's SOUL shattering.

 

*SAVE*

 

            "Well, well, well. I guess that last time wasn't enough of a beating for you. I will warn you though, forcing him to guess from now on miiiight be tricky. I don't think he knows how to count higher than twelve, to be honest," Flowey admitted in a stage-whisper.

            Eleven. The kid had died eleven times. Give or take.

            But they looked at Sans with a confidence that was uncanny for someone who'd failed so many times in a row. Like they knew something he, or perhaps Flowey, didn't.

            "Hey, Sans," said the human.

            Sans looked at them. "yeah?"

            "What does a skeleton tile their roof with?"

            "What are you doing?" asked Flowey, looking down at the child with a sneer.

            "i don't know, what does a skeleton tile their roof with?" returned Sans, ignoring the flower.

            The child grinned. "SHIN-gles."

            He couldn't help it. Sans laughed; a genuine, deep laugh that shook the vines inside his ribcage.

            "S-stop that!" shouted Flowey, constricting Sans' ribs and causing the laugh to cut off into a wheeze.

            "Hey Sans," the kid called. "Did you find that humerus?"

            He wheezed again, the laugh building inside him despite the pressure. Flowey, again, cut him off, this time by snapping his bottom rib in half, causing him to give a sharp cry as his vision went blurry with pain. The child's smile fell, their confidence wavering the sight of their friend in pain.

            Sans panted for a moment, letting the pain settle into a throbbing background as he gathered his senses. He looked up at the human through the top of his eye socket and tried to give them a wink with the one eye he could still control.

            "wow, kid. that one was so funny i think i cracked a rib."

            The child's lips twitched up in the hint of a smile. Flowey growled- a low, threatening sound.

            Sans took a shallow breath, his broken rib reminding him of every movement. "why did the skeleton cross the road?"

            "If you finish that joke I will finish you," hissed Flowey.

            "Why?" asked the human, ignoring Flowey

            "he didn't."

            There was a pause. The human frowned a bit, trying to figure it out. Flowey seemed just as confused, unsure if he should follow through with his promise.

            Sans sighed. "don't you get it? it's because he didn't have the _guts_."

            Flowey screamed.

            Sans joined the screaming as two more of his ribs cracked.

            "Feel like joking now?" yelled Flowey, snapping a third and relishing in the way it made Sans stiffen against his vines in pain. "Is this _funny_ to you?

            Sans choked, fighting back the growing nausea as his world began to spin. "i was gonna tell you the one about the skeleton's favorite dish being spare ribs, but if i keep crackin jokes i don't think i'll have any _ribs_ to _spare_."

            _"STOP IT!" Snap. Snap._

            His vision went dark for a moment as his consciousness threatened to fail on him. Still, he forced himself to wheeze "hey, flowey, it _seeds_ like you're not enjoying yourself," even as his ribcage groaned and splintered under the increasing pressure.

            " _I WILL MURDER EVERYONE YOU CARE ABOUT YOU IDIOT_!"

            His ribcage crackled. Each and every hairline crack felt like fire as his ribs collapsed in on themselves, but whatever Sans was doing was working. Somehow, he could feel his own SOUL flaring and Flowey's grip on his magical essence weakening, even as the creepers and vines held tighter to his physical body. He just needed to stay conscious long enough to get his magic back.

            "i think we need to get to the _root_ of your pun problem. fi-ah!" he had to stop as the pain made his head go light and his knees shake. Had the vines not been holding him up, he surely would have collapsed. He took a shuddering breath and continued. "figure out whe-nnnng-" _Snap_. "where it.. gah!" _Snap._ " _stems_ from."

            Flowey pulled out of his left eye socket enough to turn and face Sans as he screamed. " _I WILL KILL THEM ALL WITH YOUR USELESS CORPSE. I'LL MAKE YOU WATCH THE LIGHT LEAVE THEIR PITIFUL EYES. UNDYNE, ALPHYS. PRECIOUS TORIEL IN THE RUINS."_ With each name, Flowey's face melted and morphed to form a caricature of his friends. Toriel's name and face were unfamiliar to Sans, but the mention of the ruins brought him to the likely conclusion of his joke buddy back in Snowdin. The thought of passing bad knock-knock jokes back and fourth only strengthened his resolve, even as he could feel thorns scraping the inside of his skull, nearly making him pass out from the pain of it.

            "g-go _petal_ your crap elsewhe-"

            " ** _I'LL KILL PAPYRUS_**!" screamed Flowey, his face now contorting and elongating into a familiar skull.

            Sans' SOUL flared, and the next time Flowey screamed it was in pain as Sans' blue essence rushed outwards, forcing Flowey's influence away from him.

            "ya see, now i've got a _**bone**_ to pick with you," Sans growled, forcing his arm upwards and towards his left eye, still straining against the vines that enveloped him but finally gaining ground.

            "No! **NO**!!!" the flower protested, writhing across Sans' entire body and trying to regain his upper hand, pushing feebly down on his arm to try to slow his progress. "That's cheating! YOU'RE CHEATING! IT'S NOT **FAIR**!!" Fat, blubbering tears began to fall from its face.

            "neither's life," hissed Sans, grabbing the flower by it's stalk and yanking outward.

            It cried out in pain, but its eyes met Sans good eye, and even through the tears the last desperate glimmer of malice told Sans what it didn't have the time to say out loud. If it was going to die, it would take Sans with him.

            He felt the flower's stalk SNAP at the same time as his own neck, and then there was nothing but dust.

 

*SAVE*

 

            Flowey was crying and Sans wasn't sure exactly what to think about that, except to wonder exactly what the hell he'd missed.

            "Let him go," said the human.

            Sans felt his own head shake, but the influence was weaker than before. "He's mine."

            "Flowey." It was sharp and chiding. The kid was scolding him.

            "He's **mine**!" cried Flowey, the vines hugging in to Sans possessively. "He's mine and not yours! I can still kill him! He's mine to kill if I want to!"

            "No, he's not." The human's brow furrowed, and when they spoke, their voice was deadly serious. "Asriel, let him **go**."

            At the name, the flower shrank back as if it had been attacked. For a moment, nobody moved. And then, slowly at first, the creepers and vines retreated. First his fingers, then pulling out from between his metacarpal bones, unraveling from betwixt his radius and ulna. Sans flexed his fingers freely, savoring the sensation of being in control of his own body again. The creepers pulled away from his vertebrae, untangled themselves from his ribs, uncoiled from within his skull. With each inch of freedom, Sans gained a new appreciation for his own autonomy.

            The flower slipped back inside his skull to follow the rest of the vines out, and vision returned in full to Sans' formerly hijacked eye.

            The remaining tendrils snaked down his legs, disappearing through cracks of the tiled floor. In a matter of moments, all traces of green were gone, as if they'd never been there to begin with.

            "Are you okay?" the human asked, looking up at him with concern.

            Sans took a moment to do a full inventory of himself and found nothing out of the ordinary. And there was no more flower in his skull, so that was a plus.

            "i, uh, i'm good. i mean, aside from all that lasting psychological damage, but hey, who doesn't have a little bit of that down here?" he shrugged, giving a weak smile.

            The child shot forward and clasped him around the middle, almost knocking him over from the force of their hug.

            Sans hesitated before giving the kid a few pats on the back and hugging them back, careful not to squeeze too tight. "hey, kid. you really were worried about me, huh?"

            The child nodded into the front of his shirt, their fists kneading into the fabric of his hoodie as they held tight to the hug.

            "well, it'd take a lot to get the best of me," said Sans. "i'm a tough cookie when i wanna be. though, do me a favor and never fill me in on any of the timelines i missed there. i honestly do not want to know."

            "Mmkay," said the human, pulling back and wiping their nose on their sleeve before looking up at Sans with happy tears in their eyes.

            "aw, come on kid, that's enough with the waterworks. you're leaking like a nun's roof." Sans allowed the human's face to fall into a blank confusion before he continued. "y'know. a nun's roof. it's _holey_."

            The kid let out a _snrk_ and dissolved into giggles. They wiped away the last of their tears before looking back up at Sans.

            "Do you wanna go to Grillby's?"

            "i mean, i'm technically at work right now," said Sans, scratching at the back of his skull with a mitten'd hand. "but, to be honest, i'm dead tired. grillby's sounds great." Sans jerked a thumb towards the nearest pillar. "c'mon, i know a shortcut."

            Far away, tucked deep inside the ruins that had been locked to the outside world for as long as anyone could remember, a small, golden flower looked up towards the ceiling of the cavern and remembered another time it had shared a body. The last glimmering traces of sunlight that filtered into the underground caught on the tears that fell to water the bed of flowers beneath.


End file.
